Darwin award nominees for English pronunciation teaching

Clipart: Clker

You have probably seen a note someplace on the recent research "finding" that men tend to do the idiotic much more frequently than women. That was based, in part, on an analysis of annual "Darwin Award" winners over the years. For those not familiar with those "awards," they are (tongue in cheek) given to someone who " . . . supposedly contributed to human evolution by self-selecting themselves out of the gene pool via death or sterilization by their own actions."

Anyone  devoted to the procedures noted below probably does us all a favour by quickly going out of business as a pronunciation teacher. Here are a few samples, my favourites, of what we might term the "near idiotic" in pronunciation teaching. (Most are from websites or pronunciation textbooks--or workshops I've attended over the years!)  If you have any other examples, please post them below!

• "Move your tongue slightly up and back,  and curl up the edges to make a groove . . . "
• "Now check your partner's pronunciation as she reads that passage."
• "As long as you are intelligible, you'll get (or keep) the job."
• "Work together with your spouse or significant other on your pronunciation."
• "Think, Men, think!" (The Harold Hill method from the "Music Man")
• "Go out and talk with native speakers and practice your 'r's and 'l's!"
• "Listen carefully to yourself while you are speaking!"
• "Stick your tongue out and whip it back in, scraping the scum off it to do a "th" sound!"
• "Fill your mouth with marbles or hard candy and read this."
• "Write that down." (with no instructions as to how or how to follow up or practice)
• "Look it up in the dictionary" (with no instructions as to how or how to follow up or practice)
• "If you just have good conversation in English often enough your pronunciation will improve enough on its own."
• "Convince those around you to accept your accent."
• "Once you are a teenager, it is almost too late to improve your pronunciation much."
• "Native speaker-like accent in 4 weeks!"
• "Just watch my lips."

Full citation:
BMJ-British Medical Journal. (2014, December 11). Study supports the theory that men are idiots. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 16, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141211210038.htm

The "I" in Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation Teaching

Clip art: Clker

We use "integrated" in at least two distinct senses. The first, the "gold standard" today in the field, is the curricular strategy of "simply" busting up the pronunciation class and then inserting its parts throughout the program and, ideally, merging the techniques with other skill-based procedures. (See the earlier post on the subject, linked to Grant & Levis, 2004.) Here is a brief article by Steed at the University of Sidney describing a possible/typical approach to integrating pronunciation activities and techniques into speaking instruction (including the standard questionnaire-based check with students to see if they feel like it "works.")

The other sense of the term integrated--what makes the HICP perspective unique--is the requirement for extensive haptic anchoring (using movement and touch along with speech and management of the visual field); and thus potentially much more effective encoding (integration, so to speak) and recall of new and changed sounds, words and processes. Note: The only other use of the term "haptic anchor" currently appears to be in cutting edge eye surgery. How appropriate that haptic anchors be "in the eye of the beholder" as well as the body!